ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book provides new opportunities for investigating the relationship between religion, literature and society in Britain and its imperial territories in the nineteenth century. The last twenty-five years have seen a ‘religious turn’ in nineteenth-century studies. Commonly applied to beliefs, practices, experiences, institutions, texts and traditions, the meaning of the term ‘religion’ may appear obvious. Much recent work by both social historians and sociologists of religion has been concerned with the varied and complex ways in which religion is socially, culturally and materially embedded. The shift of emphasis away from institutional religion to lived experience has led to a sustained scholarly debate as to what the term ‘religion’ can encompass. The resource orients researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds within the field of nineteenth-century religion through the organisation of and introduction to texts within discrete topics.
